Republican Melissa Melendez Finally Achieves Whistle-Blower Law

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Republican Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez has been working to extend whistle-blower protections to legislative staffers for four years.  Over the last four years, she has been unable to get the law passed by the Democrat majority State legislature in Sacramento, California.  Last month the Democrats lost their supermajority, after two Democrats from Los Angeles left the Assembly in shame after sexual misconduct charges arose.

Pressured about the shame of sexual misconduct, the Democrats finally gave in, and they passed Melendez's legislation, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it almost immediately.

If the Democrats had not suddenly got behind the bill, the image would have been that they were willing to do what they could to protect their trail of sexual harrassment.  It turns out that Melendez's bill was suddenly a four-year instant sensation.

The new law took effect the moment Moonbeam Brown signed it, establishing that a person who intentionally retaliates against a whistle-blower in the Legislature could be fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to a year, and could be sued by the whistle-blower in civil court. The protections in the bill also cover volunteers, interns, fellows and those applying for a job in the Legislature.

AB403, by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore (Riverside County), had no problem getting past the Assembly.  It was the State Senate that was the problem. 

“No one should have to decide between keeping their job and reporting abuse,” Melendez said.

AB403 was released last month by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, from the Senate committee that had been holding it. De León said the bill was held because he felt the Senate’s existing anti-retaliation and sexual harassment policies were sufficient to protect legislative employees.

“In the wake of the #MeToo movement, I think it was appropriate to release the measure and make the bill a better bill,” he said, adding that he worked to beef up the bill to better protect sexual harassment victims.

The list of Democrats in trouble with sexual misconduct allegations is extensive.  Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra, D-San Fernando Valley, and Matt Dababneh, D-Encino (Los Angeles County), resigning late last year, while Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia (Los Angeles County), remains on paid leave pending an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. All three have denied wrongdoing.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary